Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General some small questions concerning the KS 150$ reward

is it possible the 150$ has been changed? also question, if i up to 150 (+18$ +6$ weresheep oeei so pooor xD) and thus get a physical and digital copy i own 2 copies right?I mean I'm allowed to install it with 2 diff persons?And the physical box is being sent in nov, but ofc I want to use my alfa/beta access sooner, but i was planning on "donating" the digital copy to a friend and keeping the hard copy,is that going to give worries?I think not since drm free but don't know which way it'll be activated.Also the digital downloads, are they from the vault or GOG or steam ..?An how will multiplayer work then (connection wise)..

The latest update (Zandalor's perspective on recent events, SP video, reward updates, more undies) clarifies the tiers.

Yes, for the physical version tiers, the DVD and digital versions are separate, so you can keep the DVD and give the digital version to someone else.

You will have a choice where to get the digital version (at least Larian Vault, Steam or GOG).

Online co-op is through Steamworks. The GOG version of the game would need to use the LAN mode to connect online (I don't know if the game supports that directly, but there are programs that can set up a virtual LAN for gaming).

super..minor q left, the boxed version will also need to use this vlan mode or..? how

I'm not sure how Steamworks games usually work.

? Steamworks is the hard copy?

Actually - we'll have a non-Steamworks solution for online coop too, but it's not 100% official yet.

Hi tightly are you integrating with steam (i.,e achievements? multi-player? mods?) ? It is tempting to get the non-drm version of course but perhaps there are too many advantages with steam that one should go that route?

The perfect solution would be a key for both, Steam and Gog. Then you can make a real DRM-free backup copy of the Gog version and still play via Steamworks in co-op.

Can I just say that achievements are bollocks?

Achievements are bollocks.

D2 had achievements. Nobody really complained, they were for shit and giggles.

I'm also interested in the gog thing. I'd like to avoid steam if possible (drm) and gog should be a more reliable source for re-download, but there might be reasons I do not yet know why Larian Vault would be the better choice. As long as the game version released would be the same for all platforms (unlike DD) I don't see a reason for Larian Vault, except that this means more profit for Larian? Let us know!

Kein;
Actually, there were a couple complaints about achievements. In particular there was an achievement for finding a certain NPC, but it was triggered just before you got close enough to trigger the cutscene, so the name of the achievement was a bit of a spoiler.


Lotrotk;
There is more profit for developers with direct sales. See the blog post Of Kickstarter & one thing I think game journalists should do. I don't know if the game itself would be any different between GOG and the Larian Vault.

Doe this more cost for direct sale significant for games purchased through kickstart; i.e, if the game is purchased through kickstart but then we take a steam key does the revenue share remain the same as if we purchased it off of steam or does the developer get a greater % (same for gog) ?

I think developers get some number of Steam keys essentially free. There have been lots of indie games sold in alone or in bundles that had Steam keys added when they got onto Steam, anyway, and they couldn't have been paying Steam very much given a dollar or less purchase price.

Re-read what I said. Couple of post is not an indicator.

Yeah, but distributors like Steam or Gog also promote the game to their regular customers (and the promotion grows as the numbers grow I suppose). So it's not a sure thing to say that it was better for Larian if everybody bought the game on the Larian vault......

More direct income (vault) vs. more promotion for a small fee per game (steam/gog). Hard decision imo.

Edit: I found this little piece of maths about selling games over your own store or over digital distributors in one of Swen's older blog posts:

To quantify this, here’s a quick approximative breakdown – a European digital sale of a 30€ game on a digital platform that takes 30% means the developer gets 17,01€ (56%) of the sales price (I took 19% VAT), as opposed to approximately 23€(76%) that he could make on his own store, taking transaction costs into account.

That’s a 20% difference, which means that for his next game, the developer’s team might be 20% bigger. Now 20% may not sound like a lot, but it is – there’s companies that move their entire offices to another country to get a 20% benefit.

Wow, 20% more income is quite a lot. I think with this special insight I would also tend to use the Larian vault store. But if nobody buys the game on steam/gog there will be no promotion there at all. This could still mean that there are lost sales if people who would have bought the game on steam or gog don't have the knowledge of the existence of the game or of the possiblity of buying it over the Larian vault. Hm, still difficult....

hmmm so if i get a HC and a DC, digital one can be chosen but HC will not be able to work via steamworks,or is there maybe a way to get a key included (I'ld even pay a bit for it as long as it's not excessive)..hmm..makes me doubt a bit (since i have got a lot of friends and games in steam) ..it all depends on how connection is possible the :s No update lined up for that "par hasard"?

Oh and also I know you guys are still looking into distr. for phystical stuff in Europe, but is that something that will be resolved during this kickstarter or no clue? It's (apart from the connection questions) only thing holding me back a bit,paying 18$ for delivery :s

Physical distribution for Germany, Austria and Switzerland will be done by Daedalic Entertainment, that's already announced.

I don't know if the boxed version of the game will be connectable with your steam account in order to use steamworks. It would make sense to make that possible for easy co-op via steamworks, but not to force players to activate the boxed copy over Steam (DRM?). I don't know if it's possible to give customers the free choice to bound their physical copy to steam or not. Would be great if yes.

I think there will be an update or announcement soon how the co-op will work with non-steam copies (and without steamworks). First there was the statement that you would have to use a virtual LAN connection but then I heard that there might be a better solution for that. We'll see.